A gourmet holiday in Montréal is about sampling the traditional foods of the city’s many cultures. It’s also about making mouth-watering discoveries, from the corner bakery to the tantalizing aromas wafting out of the kitchens of the city’s great chefs. Especially on Sherbrooke Street, downtown.

The day begins at the Renoir in the Sofitel Hotel, with breakfast made from produce fresh from the market. A three-hour guided tour of the downtown is next, enough time to explore and get a taste of Montréal’s multifaceted character.

The five-course lunch based on seasonal ingredients is prepared  by Europea chef Jérôme Ferrer, one of Montréal’s renowned culinary artists. Try the cappuccino de crème de homard à l’huile de truffe (cream of lobster cappuccino with truffle oil). Next, have the fried duck foie gras or the plate of giant scallops sprinkled with fine wine.

An after-meal visit to Cuisine Gourmet on Drummond Street is a good place to shop for the best-quality kitchen items and original cookbooks. For a wide array of Québec products, such as foie gras, tapenades and fine chocolate, it’s the Marché du Vieux.

Next is a hop to Île Notre-Dame in the middle of the St. Lawrence River for an evening of fun and gaming at the Casino de Montréal. This is also the home of the celebrated Nuances, a five-diamond restaurant as awarded by the CAA-AAA seven years in a row. The man behind its success, chef Jean-Pierre Curtat, presents his rousing Éveil des sens (“Senses awaken!”) menu in five courses.

The “Plateau,” as Montrealers call it, is a treasure trove of culinary delights and specialties. On Mont-Royal Avenue, let your nose be your guide as it transports you to the St-Viateur Bagel & Café. No one can resist these famous Montréal bagels fresh out of the oven—sesame or poppy—or sinking their teeth into a lox and cream cheese sandwich.

For a little bit of shopping, stroll over to Saint-Denis Street: perhaps some luxurious blankets or Limoges porcelain from the Arthur Quentin boutique, or delicious hand-made goodies from Les Chocolats de Chloé?

The best place to sample the famous Montréal smoked meat sandwich is at the famous Schwartz’s on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, where the brisket is still prepared according to founder Reuben Schwartz’s original 1928 recipe.

As a street that various groups of immigrants first called home for generations, “The Main” is a busy bazaar of specialty grocery stores selling Hungarian, Portuguese, Spanish and other European products. One of them is La Vieille Europe, frequented by great chefs and those who simply love to cook. They come to buy rare foods, such as caviar, truffles and English jams.
 
An audacious evening of culinary adventure is one way to sum up Martin Picard’s style at Au Pied de cochon, on Duluth Avenue, where guests clamour for his poutine au foie gras and his classic pudding chômeur. To be certain he serves the very best, he goes himself to select the produce off the farmers’ trucks and chooses the best cuts from the butcher shops for his traditional Québécois dishes.

A good way to start the day is with a steaming espresso at the Caffè Italia to soak up the local culture in warm, multi-ethnic Little Italy.

After a little shopping at the neighbourhood’s irresistible boutiques, Jean-Talon Market, the area’s public market, offers stimuli for all the senses, with colourful stalls overflowing with fruit, vegetables and flowers for all to taste and smell—and the friendly vendors are always ready to offer any advice they can. In the Marché des Saveurs boutique you’ll find flavourful Québec products such as venison paté, honey, flower jams and other unheard-of delicacies.

The name of the nearby Quincaillerie Dante is a little misleading (“quincaillerie” means “hardware store”), because this cozy little sells a wide array kitchen items, and even features pasta-making demonstrations. 
 
Park Avenue (avenue du Parc), between the Plateau and “The Mountain,” is the spine of Mile End neighbourhood and the centre of the Greek community’s cultural life. Seafood lovers swarm to Chez Milos, which each week receives fresh fish from Florida, Morocco, Portugal and, of course, Greece.

Sit down for a cappuccino is at Café Olympico, and watch people of various ethnic backgrounds go about their daily grocery shopping. Saint-Viateur Street has shops where you can buy Jewish foods and more Greek specialties.

Stylish Laurier Avenue features bakeries, chocolate shops, cheese shops and gourmet grocery stores. You can attend a cooking workshop at Les Touilleurs, or add to your kitchen tools from among the high-quality stock that lines the walls.

The evening ends on a sweet note with a stop at Bilboquet on Bernard Avenue. Try a delicious ice cream or homemade sorbet from an original line-up of flavours such as Cacophonie, a delightful mix of white chocolate and cashew nuts.

 Old Montréal holds many tasty surprises, such as the Olive et Gourmando café-bistro—an excellent place to begin your gourmet day, with pastries, organic bread or chocolates.

Once sated, you’re ready for your two-hour guided walking tour of the Circuit Arôme et Saveurs du Vieux-Montréal, a survey of the quarter’s culinary, cultural and historic charms. From there head for Canadian Maple Delights, a café-bistro where you can learn all about maple products, not to mention taste them!

In the afternoon it’s a visit to Chinatown at Restaurant Tong Por for dim sum. The carts that constantly roll by, each laden with a different steaming dish, make your mouth water and your head spin. It’s a great way to sample much of what Asian cuisine has to offer. And afterward is a shopping expedition among the quarter’s many grocery stores and boutiques.

This day of Montréal gourmet-food hopping ends with a harbour cruise aboard a Bateau-mouche for a five-course meal prepared by the chef from the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel. In the background world music plays, as the suns sets behind the city.